Two men arrested in chase slaying

February 24, 2004

By Darrell Todd Maurina

Two Clovis men face charges of open murder following their arrests Monday night in connection with the Jan. 4 shooting death of Carlos Murillo.
Santiago Calbert, 19, and Christopher Meier, 20, were both arrested without incident at their residences, Clovis Police Det. Keith Bessette said.
“We found out their addresses and picked them up (Monday) night around 9 p.m.,” Bessette said. “We have no motive yet. We have a scenario we are working with right now but we can’t yet release it.”
Two other people connected with the shooting were taken into custody Feb. 9 in Omaha, Neb., but officers didn’t release their names until Tuesday. Eric Duran, 26, was arrested in connection with a parole violation. His nephew, a 16-year-old juvenile, was arrested on a district court warrant for tampering with evidence.
Duran faces an arrest warrant for accessory to an open count of murder and tampering with evidence when he is returned to Curry County, according to a police press release.
Police said in January that Murillo, 27, was shot at the intersection of Concord Street and Marvin Hass Boulevard in north Clovis, apparently as he raced through Clovis in his sport utility vehicle in an attempt to flee his assailants. Police said the rear window of Murillo’s vehicle was shot out and the vehicle had four bullet holes. Police found additional shells scattered along the chase route beginning at the corner of Manana and Axtel.
Bessette said investigators got a key break Monday afternoon through an anonymous informant.
“He was able to tell me the whole story of what happened and what he knew,” Bessette said. “I was able to obtain arrest warrants based on that, and interviews with all suspects will be ongoing in the case.”
The three adults are being held in lieu of a $100,000 cash-only bond.
Bessette said the next step will be arraigning the four suspects and determining exactly what degree of murder charges Calbert, Meier, and Duran will face. Bessette said District Attorney Brett Carter routinely takes open murder charges to the Curry County grand jury, and that body could take some time to determine the appropriate charges.
Possible penalties differ greatly depending on the final charges.
“It could be up to life imprisonment, or if it is manslaughter, they could get six years,” Bessette said. “It’s a very, very broad scale in New Mexico.”
Bessette said the juvenile “had nothing to do with the actual homicide. His involvement was after the fact from what we can determine at this point.”